Boat deaths bring migrants' plight back into focus

Over 1,000 saved since Saturday

(By Shelly Kittleson)
(ANSA) - Rome, February 18 - Two corpses were aboard a
migrant boat that was rescued by a merchant ship some 145 miles
southwest of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Monday, Italian
authorities said Tuesday.

The Greek merchant ship Rizopon was told to move to the
area of the boat in trouble by Italian coast guards after they
received telephone calls for help from migrants aboard.

In addition to the two dead male migrants, 107 men and 16
women were aboard the boat.

They were taken to the Sicilian port of Augusta aboard the
merchant ship.

Italian authorities rescued over 1,000 people at sea
between Saturday and Monday after the end of a period of bad
weather led to a resumption of migrant crossings. Over four
thousand migrants have arrived on Italian shores already in
2014.

Tens of thousands of migrants arrive in Italy from North
Africa every year and many others die attempting the crossing in
often rickety vessels. Boat arrivals in Italy more than tripled
in 2013 from the previous year, fuelled by the conflict in Syria
and strife in the Horn of Africa.

In October around 400 people died in two separate
migrant-boat disasters near the Sicilian island of Lampedusa,
which is often the migrants' first port of call. Following the
incident and the public outcry, later that month the Italian
government launched Operation Mare Nostrum, which makes use of
amphibious ships, unmanned drones and helicopters with infrared
equipment in its search and rescue missions.

Every year for the past 15, an average of 40,000
undocumented immigrants have disembarked on European shores and
the mortality rate has increased, a report by the Florence-based
European University Institute said in December.

Most recently, more than 30 out of every 1,000 of those who
tried to cross the Mediterranean have died along the way.
Italy's southern migrant centers are often overcrowded and
underfunded, drawing criticism from European authorities, while
the Italian government begs its neighbors for support to deal
with the waves of migrants washing up on its shores.

In the past, human rights organizations, including the UN
refugee agency UNHCR, had strongly criticized Italy and Greece
countries for "push-backs" - a policy of sending migrants back
to their point of departure.

Italian authorities used to expect the flow of migrants to
diminish in winter conditions, given the increased risks of
crossings in the stormier, colder parts of the year. However,
the sheer number of rescues over the past few months points to
increased desperation of those attempting to reach Europe.
As part of Operation Mare Nostrum, an Italian military ship
on Tuesday brought another 817 migrants including 35 minors who
had been rescued off Lampedusa to Sicily's Augusta port. A
Tunisian believed to be one of the traffickers has been detained
by police.
Over the past three days 1,079 migrants - including 64
minors and one infant - have been rescued by the Italian navy.

In the first 30 days of 2013 some 217 migrants landed on Italian
coasts, while this year the corresponding figure was 2,156.
Since the beginning of Operation Mare Nostrum on October
15, its ships have rescued and taken ashore 10,403 migrants.